South Colony Lakes water safe to drink?

[nunns]

Also I read a study where most backcountry illness came from people getting themselves sick by not sanitizing their hands properly, after using the bathroom.

+1. Put your small bottle of hand sanitizer in a small Ziploc with your TP.

Sean Nunn
Raytown MO

[Scott P]

I'm fairly certain streams or lakes that don't have humans near them are perfectly safe to drink from.

In addition to humans, sheep, cattle, and beaver are big polluters too. Caution is warranted when those are present even if there are no humans around.

Anyway, when I was a kid and in scouts, one of the older scouts was a real bully. He'd always hit me and boss me around. We went on a week long scout camp and every day he would order me to fill his water bottle. Rather than go to the tap, I went to the creek and dipped it out near where the sheep and cattle would graze. As far as I know he never got sick from it though.

[bdwyer]

You should always filter the water

[randalmartin]

IMO, forget filters and use Aqua Mira (Chlorine Dioxide). Chlorine Dioxide is what municipal water systems use. Filters can and have failed for various reasons. In Colorado you rarely have to deal with sediment issues in the mountains and so Aqua Mira works great and it's only a 30 minute wait. Get a larger bag, like 3-4 Liters and treat all at once. Now you have water for the evening and the next day.

The biggest risk in Colorado is drinking water contaminated with mine runoff.

[mtree]

The biggest risk in Colorado is drinking water contaminated with mine runoff.

Yes. No. Maybe. That's a better answer. There's a number of factors to consider. First, is the water source fed by mine runoff... either continuously or even seasonally? Second, how far away? Most metals will bind with the soil/substrate and be leached out of the actual water. Just don't disturb the soil when pulling your water. The type or concentration of metals being leached from a mine is another variable. Hard to determine this without a lab test.

Luckily, if you're pulling water from above 11-12K chances are there weren't any mines above that. There are exceptions, of course. Just do a little homework on the area. Damn Fool Claims was the only one in the Crestone area I could find and that's SE of Broken Hand Peak... south of Colony Lakes. I have no idea if it was ever active. Overall, the area is devoid of mining.

Good to be aware its not just giardia or Legionella to worry about.

[shays_days]

Just to follow up on this, I drank directly from Upper South Colony with a Sawyer Mini and felt fine